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Susan SmithSusan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ newsletters and blogs. She writes on a number of topics, including but not limited to geospatial, architecture, engineering and construction. As many technologies evolve and occasionally merge, Susan finds herself uniquely situated to be able to cover diverse topics with facility. « Less

Susan SmithSusan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ … More »

One Response to “Location predicted to be big in 2010”

Josh,Thanks for the reply. I sincerely aapceripte it. Your tool seems quite functional and target with its focus on presentation mode. I’m definitely curious about it. Bridging the code gap in Google Tours is useful. I think I had some awareness of your capability when I met you and your team at Gov 2.0 Camp last year, but I must have lost it. I often consider at a variety of tools and vendors for a myriad of circumstances. We use Google Maps and Earth all the time. GeoCommons came through for me recently for publishing a map of farmer’s markets from USDA.gov data, disclaimer: FortiusOne helped but it worked. There are some things about ESRI’s tool that, for me, were key in my adopting it. It’s not just the fact that they provide a free-as-in-beer site for me to use, though that certainly helps with the volunteer Clean The Bay Day stuff. But free-as-in-beer services are not an entirely fair measure in the marketplace of software goods and services. At some point it will be necessary for some users to own the capability and perhaps maintain it behind a firewall. It’s not clear to me how I can do that with explorer.arcgis.com (or presentation mode in some other ESRI product). I’m guessing your tool offers that ability. That everything is available from a base URL loaded into in any browser is also important. (Some will discount the use of Silverlight and they may have fair point.) That the entire UI is a single package that lives in the browser window is important. There are no hard context switches between modes or between applications. I don’t want to export anything. Note to ESRI: I like the new tool bar less than the old one.I’m not saying your tool doesn’t also meet these criteria. It’s little harder for me to evaluate your tool through movies. I don’t mind filling out the form. I did fill out the form. I have to wait to hear back from someone at Rhiza. That’s also a barrier to entry.Believe me when I say that I know exactly the position you are in as an inventor and small business competing in a space with giants. Just as you have used Google as a platform I have used ESRI as a platform. They are both great platforms. I’m sure your tool is something customers want and I look forward to learning more about it.Best,Kevin